Karina SZASZVARI Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Hungary

„Greying” society: The rapidly growing aging population of the

developed societies gives challenges for the social, political, medical, and economical structure.

Definition of aging/older worker There is no consistency in definition of older worker:

over 55, 50, or rather 40? We use over 45 years of age as definition, based on

Hungarian labour market experiences and European Union studies: over 45 there is an increasing difficulty in job-finding, and increasing discrimination of aging workforce.

1. Former scientific researches and the common life experiences proved the existence of age-stereotypes in workplace issues.

2. There are current researches about benefits of elderly .(Englander,in press)

3. What kind of variables are responsible for the stereotypes of aging workforce?

Our approach has 4 pillars:

1. Age stereotypes in work relation

2. Leader’s psychological distance and group effectiveness. (Fiedler, 1960)

3. Dogmatism (Rokeach, 1960)

4. Risk-perception and judgement in old age (Englander, in press)

Job related age stereotypes (Kirchner, 1952;Rosen Jerdee,1976) and AS on Managerial decisions (Rosen Jerdee,1976; Chiu at al,2001; Redman, 2006;Munnel at al, 2006) - characteristics of AS were analyzed, but the subjects were university students; there weren’t any „on the job” sample

The role of race, age, sex in employment selection (Hafner, 1977): The employers preferred the younger candidates versus the older ones.

Stereotypes about Aging Workforce in the Hungarian Labour Market (Daxkobler,2005) HR experts didn’t attached as great importance to those features which change into negative direction with the age as we could except them by the importance in the selection process.

We focus on the followings: The effective leaders could differentiate

their subordinates more better than less effective groups’ leaders. The effective leaders see considerable difference between the best and the worst co-workers.

The way of perception of a situation or a person could be differentiated or generalised. In this case the generalisation could be responsible for stereotyping.

Dogmatism The opened and closed mind (Rokeach,1960) Closed mindedness as a cognitive style effects

the processing of information, and causes stereotypes due to the dychotonomous functioning

Risk-perception and judgement in old age (Englander, in press) Some features of risk perception shows

differences between elderly and young adulthood.

The judgement of elderly is considerably different than of young adults.

1. The cognitive style effects the person-perception related to age: The closed-mindedness effects big difference in person-perception of young and older worker.

2. a. There are special components of

stereotyping of aging people in work-situation

b. and these components relate to the beliefs about risk perception and judgements of youngsters and elderly.

Participants 288 employee in different organizations

Male N=129, female N=125 Age 19-54, M=32,7, SD=9,5 Qualification: basic N= 41, middle N= 171, high N= 54 Leaders N=28, staffmembers N=234

Process Questionnaires

Assumed Similarity of Opposites (based on Fiedler,1960)

Dogmatism Scale (Rokeach, 1960) Attitude questionnaire of Aging Attitude questionnaire about characteristics of older

people’s risk perception and judgement (based on Englander, in press)

Measures the perceived difference of two age groups : based on Fiedler, 1960, MPC –LPC questionnaires

8 point semantic different scales: Least preferred YOUNG co-worker (under 45): LPC(Y) Least preferred AGING co-worker (over 45): LPC(A)

„Imagine the younger (under age 45 )co-worker whom you can work the least…

ASO index =√∑i [LPC(Y)-LPC(A)]2

High ASO index means: subject perceives big difference between young and

older co-worker in work-situation or we could say subject attributes overacting

importance to age in person perception.

i=1-16

"Dogmatism has been defined as a. a relatively closed cognitive system of beliefs

and disbeliefs about reality, b. organized around a central set of beliefs about

absolute authority which, in turn, c. provides a framework for patterns of

intolerance and qualified tolerance towards others.„

40 item, 6 point Likert scale (between +3 and -3) N= 270 M=22,3 SD=6,02

Open-mindedness Scores<20 N=81 M=15,2 SD=3,63

Closed-mindedness Scores>25 N=82 M=28,8 SD=2,89

„What is your opinion about your older co-worker (over 45) in

general?”19 bipolar adjective pairs, 8 point

semantic different scale The scale is based on a focus group

collection (N=38)N=270 M=69 SD=25,2Cronbach’s α=.93

KMO=0.932

F1= Developmental capacity

Cronbach’s α=.928

F2= Social/emotional stability

Cronbach’s α=.826

F3= Norms-keeping behaviour in organization

Cronbach’s α=.732

Answer for H2(a):There are

special features of stereotyping elderly

considering workplace environment.

ASO index Separated 2 significantly (p<.001)

different groups (N=71, M=5.2, SD=1.4 and N=76, M=11.7, SD=1.5)

The difference is independent of sexuality, age, qualification, leadership position (p>.05)

There is a difference between people in person-perception based on age.

Dogmatism scale Separated 2 significantly (p<.001) different

groups (N=81 M=15.2, SD=3.63 and N=84, M= 28.8, SD=2.9)

open-mindedness/closed-mindedness is not related to ASO index (Oneway Anova, p>.05)

Answere for H1:The difference in age perception

can’t be explained by cognitive style.

Attitude Questionnaire of Aging Significant differences in all 3 factors by age-

groups (1=age<30 N=118 M=24,6 SD=3, 2=30<age<40 N=88, M=33,3 SD=2,9 3=age>40 N=63 M= 47,3 SD=4,8)

Age-group 1 and 2 acted the same therefore only 2 age-groups were created: 1=age<40 N=203 M=28,1 SD=5 and 2=age>40 N=63 M=47,3 SD=4,8

Younger employees (under 40) attribute significantly more negativ features to the aged over 45 co-workers than the older employees (over 40) do in all 3 factors. (F1 p<.001, F2 p=.001, F3 p<.01)

There is a difference between people in person-perception by age. (ASO, p<.001)

The difference in age perception can’t be explained by cognitive style (Dogmatism-ASO, p>.05),

In organisational environment there are 3 work-related factors as components of stereotypes of aging people. (Attitude Questionnaire for Aging)

There isn’t any relationship between person-perception and attitudes toward elderly. The value of ASO index is connected with neither of the 3 factors. (ASO-Attitude Questionnaire of Aging, p>.05)

This is a pilot study, with part-outcomes as starting-point for further research.

The results are calming: the attitudes toward aging workforce can be influenced (by the environment/ organization?)

But we have to clear up the background of the existence of the difference in person-perception based on age in organisational environment

It must be studied what variables are responsible for age-stereotypes at the workplace.

Emphases on organizational issues, as organizational culture, age-norms, Person-Environment Fit Adult career patterns (individual differences,

opportunities) Values, benefits of employment of elderly

Thank you for your attention!szkarina@t-online.hu